[42]

Hi all!
I am interested which techniques you use for learning and memorising.
Let's say you played SAYC over years and now you and your partner decide to switch for example to relais precision. You have a lot of material like scripts of other players or books. Reading comes first, of course , understanding comes next, perhaps you discuss with your partner. But then? How do you keep that stuff in mind?

=====================================================

Reading and reading again and again is a possibility, writing down another one.

A technique which works pretty well is to write down bidding sequences on cards, solution on the backside, putting all cards (mixed) in one box. Then pick a card and when you know the right answer you put the card in another box, if not, you read the solution and put the card back in the first box. Do this until the first box is empty
Unfortunately this takes a lot of time (and who has it??).

[Chamaco]

42, on Jan 12 2006, 08:31 AM, said:

A technique which works pretty well is to write down bidding sequences on cards, solution on the backside, putting all cards (mixed) in one box. Then pick a card and when you know the right answer you put the card in another box, if not, you read the solution and put the card back in the first box. Do this until the first box is empty
Unfortunately this takes a lot of time (and who has it??).

I wonder why noone has ever suggested the following (or did they?):

write bidding sequences on a piece of paper and stick them on the wall in front of the toilet.

The rest is obvious I guess

I think the BB posters will agree almost unanimously that the toilet is the elected place for thinking sessions :-)

[Fluffy]

Agree with mauro hehe.

Another method is to try hundreds of deals with your partner at the lovelly partnership bidding tables. With your notes present at first, later without.

[Gerben42]

Well writing down the scheme is 80% of the work, really. I cannot remember any conventions that I have not written down on paper (or in my case almost always on my PC). So what I've written down is what I play. Anything else... I don't play or at least not for more than a week

Then do a lot of partnership bidding practice on BBO.

[42]

Chamaco, on Jan 12 2006, 10:08 AM, said:

write bidding sequences on a piece of paper and stick them on the wall in front of the toilet.

The rest is obvious I guess 

I think the BB posters will agree almost unanimously that the toilet is the elected place for thinking sessions :-)

My fantasy is turning somersaults on this.... It is known that smells support memory. You forgot a convention? No problem anymore: *ffffttttt* (sorry, I could not resist)
I think ladies prefer a big mirror for placing the paper pieces

[FrancesHinden]

The downside of BBO is that requires you both to be logged on.

There are various free dealing programs about.

On the (rare) occasions that we add new bits of system, we deal a load of hands with constraints appropriate to the part of the system we are changing and then bid them when we have spare moments. Of course, we have the advantage that we live together (or at present that we live together at weekends!), but there's always email and telephone.

Bidding lots of hands is also useful to identify gaps or problems in your methods.

[Chamaco]

FrancesHinden, on Jan 12 2006, 10:54 AM, said:

The downside of BBO is that requires you both to be logged on.

There are various free dealing programs about.

On the (rare) occasions that we add new bits of system, we deal a load of hands with constraints appropriate to the part of the system we are changing and then bid them when we have spare moments. Of course, we have the advantage that we live together (or at present that we live together at weekends!), but there's always email and telephone.

Bidding lots of hands is also useful to identify gaps or problems in your methods.

For specific sequences, I have used some Constrained deal generators (I use "Dealer"), to create hands suitable for some specific bidding sequences.

Then I split the set of hands for North and South, in separate documents (I use excel spreadsheets, but anything will do), and then send one doc to my partner via email.

We then email back and forth the bidding for a set of about 10 hands.
It's slower than the partnership bidding practice room on BBO, but it does not require both people logged in at the same time.

Also, using a custom Deal generator allows to control the opps bidding hands for contested auction better than the current Partnership bidding room in BBO (even using GIB Bots for contested auctions).

[inquiry]

On line partnership bidding with constrains set is very useful.

Something else that works well is deal out a bunch of hands that fit the requirement and send a copy of ALL the hands to your partner and keep a copy for yourself. Then both of you come up with the "correct" auction for each hand. Then see where you agree or disagree.

I did this (of sorts) when developing MisIry with Mishovnbg. Misho wanted to use 2NT within the MisIry concept, I didnt' want to give up on it being 20-21 bal. Using Stephen Pickett's excellent BridgeBrowser program, I dug up nearly 1000 MisIry (only looking at that time for strong variety) hands. It turned out that after reviewing the hands (and the results), I decided Misho was correct, that MisIry works best including 2NT in the mix, so I then pulled up 100's of traditional 2NT openers and tried to figure out how to handle them if you give up on a natural 2NT. Once I became comfortable with the fact that 2NT doesn't have to show the balanced 20-21 hand, I had figured out how misiry works.

Finally, it is useful to try to describe in "words" when you would use one option and when not. If you can work through the process logically rather than reading it from a book, then you are more likely to be able to remember it at the table. Besides the best way to learn any topic is to try to teach it to others... Use your writings on it as a way to hammer home the lessons to yourself.

[Free]

One thing that I used to do to learn MOSCITO was trying to figure out how the bidding would go when I was kibitzing. If I didn't know exactly, I'd look it up or ask what Richard would've done. Also I have a silly program at home where you can see 1, 2, 3 or 4 hands (it's a game for DOS, so you can immagine how poor it is), so you can bid seeing both hands, and also have some useful interference (not the one you get from partnership bidding where they psych all the time). This has always been very useful to me when learning and practicing bidding systems.

Another one of those things that work very good is writing or typing your system notes. For some reason, you just remember stuff a lot better, and you also find the small details you might miss when quickly rereading the notes. My f2f partner also found it very useful to type over the notes.

[Al_U_Card]

Another way is to pretend that you are teaching the method to a relative beginner. Write out your "explanations" and this will help you solidify them in your memory.

[luke warm]

the best way i've found to learn a system or convention is to write it down... if it's internally logical, that jumps out at you... FD is a great tool for a lot of different reasons, and learning a new system is one of them imo

[Free]

Yes and no. It should be possible to print out the entire tree, that would be very helpful imo.

[hrothgar]

Move from the general to the specific

Memorizing thousands of "random" facts is very difficult.
Learning a few basic principles is relatively easy.

Focus on creating a framework and then slot specific bids into the right hole

[Elianna]

Chamaco, on Jan 12 2006, 02:08 AM, said:

I think the BB posters will agree almost unanimously that the toilet is the elected place for thinking sessions :-)

Icch. Count me out!

42 said:

I think ladies prefer a big mirror for placing the paper pieces

Maybe, but I don't.

If there's something that relies on just rote memorization (learning the basics of a new system, what bids mean, history, science, etc.) my memorization process is two steps:

1)Reading whatever I need to know
and if that's not enough (it used to be, but I've gotten older and my brain has gotten deader):
2) Re-writing things.

I should note that my brain is very fussy. When I said read, I meant READ, and not hear (I can't remember a single thing that only comes to me verbally), and by write, I mean handwrite rather than type (I guess my hand remembers what my fingers don't?)

[EricK]

Chamaco, on Jan 12 2006, 09:08 AM, said:

I wonder why noone has ever suggested the following (or did they?):

write bidding sequences on a piece of paper and stick them on the wall in front of the toilet.

I used to do that, but now I've put all that behind me.

[kgr]

Gerben42, on Jan 12 2006, 12:06 PM, said:

Well writing down the scheme is 80% of the work, really. I cannot remember any conventions that I have not written down on paper (or in my case almost always on my PC). So what I've written down is what I play. Anything else... I don't play or at least not for more than a week

Then do a lot of partnership bidding practice on BBO.

Agree.
But for my partnership I propose all new conventions and bidding agreements. I propose them to my partner, discuss them with him, I write them down on my PC and print them for my partner (who does not have a computer and internet).
=> The result is that I know our agreements, but it is much more difficult for my partner.
Fot the last change we have done: I explained it to my partner and I asked hime to write it down on a piece of paper. I will then add it to our system file on my PC. Hopefully it will help for my partner that he wrote it down first. (and I think it will).

[Sigi_BC84]

42, on Jan 12 2006, 09:31 AM, said:

I am interested which techniques you use for learning and memorising.
Let's say you played SAYC over years and now you and your partner decide to switch for example to relais precision. You have a lot of material like

Hi,

an incredibly effective tool for learning any symmetric relay structure is "Bridge2Symmetric", which is unfortunately not being sold anymore (nor is it open source). You can enter most kinds of relay structure (including several asking schemes for controls etc.) and then practice it both as relayer and relay responder.

I have entered Moscito 2005 (worked really well after only a short time learning how the tool works) and also practiced it quite a lot.

The tool generates hands (which you can constrain if you want to practice only certain hand types) and lets you bid/read them. It's also very easy to select a part of the relay structure and practice only that part.

Unfortunately the only way to get hold of the tool is to stuble across somebody who is unethical enough to give it away...

I'm still hoping that the original author(s) (I think it's Roy Kerr and maybe others) will finally release it for free or something.

--Sigi